Is Athena really boxed in?
Currently, Athena is on a historic title run as she’s listed as the longest reigning champion in Ring of Honor. Athena's been killing it in terms of both character and in-ring work; with the ROH Women’s World Champion having excellent matches against Willow Nightingale, Hikaru Shida, and Billie Starkz, but the biggest issue is that barely anyone is watching the promotion these days.
That’s because ROH is behind a paywall. Tony Khan is still searching for a television deal; So while Athena’s been putting in the best work of her career, the lack of chatter surrounding her 730 day plus reign means that most fans have no clue about the incredible work that she’s doing in the promotion.
Booker T is one of the wrestlers who trained the 36-year-old, and he feels that Athena should be an AEW regular, yet she’s been boxed in her Ring of Honor role, “Athena would fit right into the AEW women’s roster. She’s just as good, if not better… instead, they stick her in a box and put her in Ring of Honor.” Booker T said.
The last time Athena was on AEW television was back in April where she successfully defended her title against Red Velvet at the annual Battle of the Belts special. That’s the only AEW related show that Athena has appeared on. This isn’t the first time that someone has criticized Athena’s lack of television appearance, but “The Fallen Goddess” has discussed this issue in the past and states that there’s a plan to sprinkle her onto AEW programming here and there (Transcript courtesy of wrestlinginc):
"It's something that Tony and I talk about quite a bit in person," Athena said in her interview with Stephanie Chase. "It's like, 'Okay, we did Battle of the Belts, we're sprinkling it here and there. We've done pre-shows on multiple pay-per-views with myself and Billie [Starkz] and Lexi [Nair] in there as well.' I think it's just a matter of time."
One thing’s for sure, Athena promises to break all of the “hussies” on the AEW roster once she finally comes in, "When I come to AEW, I'm beating the breaks off of all these hussies, and they're not going to be able to stand toe-to-toe. So if I'm the best kept secret, they should have been watching ROH,"
Will that time be after Final Battle? Only time will tell, but Booker T is right, it’s time to get Athena onto regular AEW programming because she’s just too darn good to be hidden behind ROH’s paywall.